News

In december last year my family had flown up to Kruger to join me on a safari over Christmas. For the occasion we visited the andBeyond team at one of my favourite South African lodges, Exeter River Lodge, in the Sabi Sands. Of course, when visiting the Sabi Sands, one of the main interests is the leopard viewing which is usually unbelievably good and certainly better than any other reserve I have visited.

On Christmas day, it poured and poured with rain, but out we went early in the morning, looking for a 'Christmas leopard'. Near the end of our drive, on the way back to the lodge, we found her, resting on a termite mound. In the Sabi Sands, many leopards are given names as they are seen frequently and it's always interesting to keep track of the individuals- this leopard was named Tlangisa.



Over the next three days we viewed her getting hungrier and hungrier, often hunting but never successful. One night we watched as she stalked to within a few metres of a herd of impala, before they were spooked and disappeared into the darkness.



On our last morning we found her hunting again in some thick bush. As she entered a small clearing she stopped, and her tail began to twitch with great excitement. In the grass a few metres ahead of her lay an impala lamb, concealed as best as possible by its mother. She stalked closer, her tail twitches getting even more excited until the lamb decided to make a dash for it. Within seconds she was standing in front of us, holding her prize up proudly.



It is not very often than we get to witness this type of moment in nature: predator and prey both doing their best to survive. Sometimes it just all comes together! More images of Tlangisa and other Sabi Sands leopard can be found here

On a recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa I was very privileged to spend an hour watching a pride of lions at a waterhole all alone one evening. I was staying at one of the wilderness camps, Urikaruus, which only has four rooms. This meant I had a good chance of having a sighting 'to myself'. The pride of lions in question is known affectionately to me as the 'Craig Lockhart Pride', as that is the waterhole where I first encountered them, and spent many an hour watching their antics. It had been two years since I last saw them, so this sighting was extra special in my books.


Family portrait

On arrival at the waterhole, the pride of two adult females, two younger cubs, an adult male and one very young cub had just made their way down from the dunes. The youngest cub cannot have been long with the pride, and was of great fascination to the lionesses and older cubs. He had a lot of bravery for one so young, and continually plodded up to various pride members, giving them a small tap on the nose, or a cute cat-like bite on the ankle.


The newest edition bravely marching across the riverbed

It was extremely special watching a pride of powerful killers playing with each other. Lions are the most social cats, and usually live in prides ranging in size from two to twenty. They can take out prey as large as young elephant, or adult buffalo, but show surprising gentleness toward each other in play. Even the older cubs seemed to be limiting their strength when they pushed the new addition gently around. It was such a pity that we had to leave to get back to camp, but it was an hour I will always remember fondly.


Playful cats
My 'lions' gallery can be viewed here for more images of these impressive cats!

The sight of thousands of nesting birds, trying to raise their young as quickly as possible during the brief window of opportunity provided by the Arctic summer, is magic to behold. It is most likely one of the reasons each arctic visitor makes the long trip north into the relative cold. However, some of these nesting birds come with a disclaimer.

The Arctic tern is one such bird, making the epic journey north from the Antarctic to take advantage of 24 hours of sunlight. They nest on the ground, in shallow depressions, which are guarded vigorously against predators- humans included in the broader definition thereof! When you get too close to one of their nests, often unavoidably as they will nest right next to roads, or on pathways, they take to the air. The first thing you hear through the beanie that is protecting your head against the icy wind is a faint clicking sound. Next, you see a set of white wings preceded by a sharp red beak making their way quickly in your direction. If you have experienced this before, you know that they aim for the highest part of your body, so you now raise you hand (hopefully gloved) against the inevitable collision. If not, you may find yourself with a nasty looking cut and a trickle of blood flowing freely down your scalp.



Polar bears looking for an easy meal, arctic fox trying their luck and humans are all put off very quickly by this dive-bombing technique. Us 'predators' are quick learners! On our first day in Longyearbyen we watched an arctic fox being mobbed by about 20 terns, and he was in such a hurry to escape that he plunged straight into the river to get away. We fell victim to a few such aerial assaults, but were able to move away quickly enough and without injury. I do however warn you- beware the tern...

Here is a link to my Svalbard Gallery

My image 'Dance' which was taken in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve over Christmas has been featured on Earthshots.org as photo of the day!



I like this image because of the angle it was photographed at- I was lying flat on the ground in front of the game drive vehicle. If I had stayed in the landrover, the image would not have had the same impact as it did. The image is of a flap-necked chameleon crossing the road, but they try and mimic a leaf in the wind as they go, which makes them appear to be dancing as they move! Other chameleon and nature images can be found in the Nature gallery. I hope you like it!

http://www.earthshots.org/2012/05/dance-by-laura-dyer/

I am once again very pleased to be featured on Earthshots photo of the day! Do have a look at some of the other images on the site, they are really great.

This image was taken while on safari in Mashatu Game reserve in Botswana. It is of an elephant matriarch who was sniffing our vehicle before moving the herd past us.
More elephant images can be found in the African Mammals page.


http://www.earthshots.org/2012/02/sniff-by-laura-dyer/

I was extremely happy to have one of my brown bear images featured as the Earthshots photo of the day. This image was shot in Finland, right next to the Russian border from a photographic hide in the forest. I fell in love with the bears, and it's a trip I will definitely do again in the near future. More of my images from the trip can be seen in the Finland gallery
http://www.earthshots.org/2011/11/forest-retreat-by-laura-dyer/